Hubert Aiwanger - the face of the Free Voters

Obituary Death of the Bavarian politician Hubert Aiwanger - the face of the Free Voters As of: November 5th, 2026 • 9:03 a.m

Beer tent, farm, clear edge: Hubert Aiwanger stood for the Free Voters like no other. He led the party into state government and remained its most influential figure until the end. An obituary by Regina Kirschner.

He was the face of his party. With him at the helm, the Free Voters in Bavaria made it onto the government bench for the first time, where they still sit alongside the CSU today. As usual, Hubert Aiwanger made it clear shortly after the 2018 election: his party would not allow itself to be patronized by its major coalition partner. If it turns out that the CSU “wants to go sledding with us,” the Free Voters would be the first to get off the sleigh and let the CSU “go to the wall alone.”

Clear words - that's what the Lower Bavarian was known for. Hubert Aiwanger was born in Ergoldsbach in January 1971, grew up on a farm in Rahstorf in the Landshut district and studied agricultural sciences.

In 2006, Aiwanger took off politically. The Free Voters were looking for a new board. Aiwanger - still a political nobody at the time - took the stage at the state assembly in front of district administrators and mayors and "talked freely about what my heart was putting in my mouth," he later recalled. He was elected head of the country.

In 2008, the Free Voters succeeded in entering the Bavarian state parliament for the first time, and Aiwanger became parliamentary group leader. In 2010 he also took over the federal presidency. He turned the movement, which had strong local roots, into a party - against internal resistance. Because some people feared that the former grassroots movement could lose proximity to the local people.

Aiwanger continued to be decidedly down-to-earth as Economics Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. He liked beer tent performances, where he would immerse himself in the crowd, shake hands and let himself be celebrated. Rolling up his sleeves, always outspoken, without a manuscript: that became his trademark.

For his critics, Aiwanger was seen as too harsh and as someone who repeatedly overstepped the mark with his statements. At the same time, this style gave him nationwide fame.

Aiwanger particularly campaigned for the rural population. People from the cities are welcome in the countryside, he once explained - as long as they don't try to "train the whole village" there and explain to the neighbors how they should live.

Aiwanger even survived the worst crisis of his career politically. In the summer of 2023 it became known that an anti-Semitic leaflet had been found in his school bag while he was at school. Aiwanger denied having written it himself.

At a beer tent appearance in the middle of the affair, he admitted: "I also did shit in my youth, yes, I did shit too." At the same time, he criticized when people were confronted with things that happened 35 or 40 years ago, to the point of endangering their professional existence.

Just a few weeks later, the Free Voters achieved 15.8 percent in the state elections in Bavaria - their best result to date. The massive public criticism mobilized voters rather than damaging Aiwanger politically.

The Free Voters also celebrated great successes under his leadership in the Bavarian local elections in the spring and took several district administrator positions from the CSU.

However, Aiwanger was denied a major political goal: his party's entry into the Bundestag. The Free Voters tried four times and failed each time at the five percent hurdle.

Aiwanger was 55 years old. The Lower Bavarian had two children and lived with the Free Voters district administrator Tanja Schweiger. With Hubert Aiwanger, the Free Voters are losing their most prominent and certainly most controversial figure.

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